The Living Element
by alliance
Summary: What happens when scientist mess with what they shouldn't? Powers from the Dark Ages are reborn. R&R Plz. Chapter 6 is a 'writer cut', and Chapter 7 a continuance.
1. Arrival

Author's Note 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.  
Author's Note 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).

Arrival

The scientists gather around the large tube that held their experiment. Mastery of the Old Elements, the project had been started twenty years ago, but none of the subjects lasted more than three moths with the enhancements. That is, until this one. The boy in the cylinder had been wandering the streets when the scientists had found him nearly a year previous. Nothing they knew of the Old Elements could prepare them for what happened next. The boy's eyes opened slowly, revealing the same grey that always acompanied thunderstorms. "He's awake." one scientist says. The boy's eyes glow blue, and the water is pushed outward from his body, shattering the glass and flinging it into electrical equipment, walls, and even the scientists themselves. He hears their screams of pain, but does not care. One hits a large red button on the wall. "Emergency! Project Element is loose!" the scientist then drops to the ground. The boy walks over to the button and smashes it in with his right hand, causing cracks to spiderweb out from the button across the wall. As he leaves the building, he grabs the clothes they had made for him, grey pants, shirt, vest, and cape. He takes one final look around and sees a metal plaque on the cylinder. 'Maethus, Project Element'. He rases his left hand and some of the water floats into the air. The water then pounds on the plaque until the words are all eroded by the water.

Maethus sits in the waiting room of a private school he'd found in a nearby city. The principal's secretary entered the room and handed him a clipboard with enrollment forms on it. "Sign those, and then we'll see what the principal says." the secretary says. Maethus reaches for the clipboard, and the secretary raises and eyebrow at the symbol on his hand. He quickly hides his hands from the secretary's view, and begins filling out the papers. A few minutes pass, and a black-clothed girl enters the office.  
"The principal wanted to see me?" she asks.  
"Ms. Ishiyama, the principal is expecting you." the secretary nods and points to the door. The girl enters the room and Maethus goes back to his paperwork. He finishes and hands the clipboard back to the secretary, making sure he keeps his hands covered. "He'll let you know when he's done with Ms. Ishiyama." Maethus nods and sits down again. Within seconds, the Principal opens the door and takes the clipboard from the secretary. He motions for Maethus to follow him. Maethus does and sits next to the Ishiyama girl. After a few minutes, the principal speaks.  
"Maethus, is it?" he nods. "Alright. Everything looks good. Ms Ishiyama will show you the school. Your classes will officially start tomorrow morning. You two are dismissed." the two leave the principal's office, Maethus crossing his arms across his chest.

"What a waste of a morning." Maethus says. The girl notices part of the mark on his right hand.  
"Jinshin..." she starts, and Maethus pulls his sleeve over his hand.  
"I wouldn't read that if I were you. Could cause problems." he continues walking.  
"I'm Yumi. What's with the hair?" she asks.  
"Maethus. A mark from a past experience."  
"You don't talk much, do you?" Yumi takes bigger steps and is alongside Maethus.  
"No." he agrees.  
"How about I introduce you to some of my friends?" he shrugs. "Alright, I'll take that as a yes. Follow me." Yumi says. She leads him to the lunch room and over to her table with Jeremy, Ulrich, and Odd. "Hey guys."  
"Who's your new friend?" Odd asks as the two sit down.  
"Maethus." he answers for himself.  
"Cool hair."  
"Not too bad with your own."  
"That's Odd. He's Jeremy." Yumi nods toward the blonde. "And Ulrich." he half-waves.  
"How'd you get your hair like that?" Jeremy asks. "It looks natural."  
"It is. Naturally synthetic." Maethus grabs a roll off Ulrich's plate.  
"Huh?" Odd looks at Jeremy.  
"He means it's man-made with natural materials. Strange way to make hair." Jeremy explains. Maethus shrugs, not really caring. "Gee, you're really talkative."  
"I could've told you that." Yumi says. Maethus shakes his head and bites into the roll.  
"You could at least say thanks." Ulrich watches Odd steal some of his lunch.

After lunch, Yumi leads Maethus to his dorm. "Since you don't have a roomate, your dorm is over here near Jeremy's. If you ever need to contact one of us, then you can go through Jeremy. I've got to get to class, so I'll leave you alone now." Yumi says.  
"Have fun." he opens his door and looks inside. Looking around, Maethus spots the computer and logs into the internet. He types in a url, and he instantly is swamped with moderator messages. "Damn it. Too many new messages." He quickly skims through them all and creates a new topic in the 'Forums' area. "'I have just returned, and believe me that you would not want to be in my shoes at the moment.'" He posts the topic and then checks his personal messages. One catches his eye and he reads it aloud. "'Have you gotten out yet, Element?'" he clicks the reply button. "'Finally, after five months. But they have done something to me. I have not fully found the extent of their tampering. Let me know when you get out, Shadows.'" he sends the reply and turns from the computer. "They still hold her, and even if I must return, I WILL free Shadow." Maethus opens his door at a knock.  
"Hey kid. Here's your stuff." the gym teacher, Jim, hands Maethus's five suitcases to him. "Sheeze, what do you have in there? An army?" Jim asks. Maethus shrugs and tosses the suitcases onto his bed. "Well, don't be late to my class tomorrow. Running's the punishment." Jim gives Maethus a thumbs up and leaves, closing the door on his way. Maethus begins unpacking, taking a short sword from a suitcase and hides it under his mattress.

The final class bell rings, and Maethus makes his way outside to watch the sky. He practically runs into Sissy in his rush. "Hey, watch where you're going!" she yells at him. He ignores her and continues, sensing a storm brewing in the cloudy sky. Yumi sees him and waves.  
"Hello again." Maethus says, a big grin on his face.  
"What's got you so happy?" Ulrich asks.  
"Storm coming."  
"And that's a good thing?" Odd looks at Jeremy, as if expecting him to answer. Jeremy gives him a 'don't look at me' expression.  
"Rain, and lots of it. Thunder, stronger than ever seen before." Maethus climbs the tree and sticks the upper half of his body out the top, watching the clouds darken, feeling a few raindrops on his face. "It's coming! It's coming!" he spreads his arms, letting the sleeves uncover his hands, and Yumi gets a look at both his hands.  
"Now that's really strange." she says.  
"What? How he's acting?" Jeremy looks at his friend.  
"No, his hands. Jishin, Kazan, Doshaburi, Hariken."  
"Aren't those japanese words?" Ulrich asks.  
"Yes. Earthquake, Volcano, Torrent, and Hurricane. But what I can't tell is if they are birth-marks or tatoos or what." Yumi shakes her head. "He's so strange."  
"Come, Lighting! Strike upon me! Grant me your power!" as if answering his call, a blood-red lightning bolt falls from the clouds and strikes Maethus in his chest, burning a hole in his shirt and knocking him to the ground beneath the tree, knocking him unconcious. The rain starts, at first slowly, then gaining in strength. Soon everyone is forced to retreat inside, to the safety of the brick walls of the school. Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Odd carry Maethus to the infermary.

"What happened to him?" the nurse asks.  
"He climbed a tree and got struck by lightning." Odd says as they lay Maethus on one of the beds.  
"He did WHAT?!?" the nurse looks in shock. "By all truth, he should be fried because of where it hit." she notices Maethus's chest rising and falling slowly.  
"But he's not, and that's strange enough on it's own." Jeremy says. He and the others leave Maethus in the nurse's care. "I'll see you guys later. I'm going to check in with Aelita." Jeremy heads off towards his room, leaving Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi to find something to do on their own within the school.

"Aelita, can you hear me?" Jeremy asks. The virtual resident of Lyoko appears on the screen.  
"Hi Jeremy." she says with her usual smile.  
"Aelita, have you sensed any pulsations lately?"  
"No, why?"  
"There's this new kid. He seemed to have called some lightning and rain. I'll start a scan in case there IS an activated tower." Aelita nods and dissapears from the screen.


	2. Shadows and Elements

Author's Note 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.  
Author's Note 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).

Shadows and Elements

Jeremy looks at his computer. "This is so strange. The rain is still falling, but it doesn't seem to be XANA's doing." Jeremy says when Aelita appears.  
"I didn't sense any pulsations, Jeremy." she says.  
"That's alright Aelita. I'll see you later." Jeremy logs off his computer and leaves his room to see if the nurse had figured anything out about Maethus.  
"Get away I said!" Jeremy hears Maethus's voice yelling, apparently at the nurse. "I said I'm alright!" Jeremy opens the door, only to hide behind it as Maethus throws a needle at the door.  
"Is this a bad time?" Jeremy asks, peaking around the door, hoping to reduce potential targets.  
"If he thinks he's alright then just get him out of here!" the nurse orders Jeremy.  
"Finally!" Maethus jumps out of the bed and runs out the door, grabing Jeremy's arm and dragging him along. Maethus stops, out of breath. "Where's the highest point in the school?" he asks.  
"Uhhh, that would be the antennae for our mobiles." Jeremy says, curious as to Maethus's plans.  
"Take me there." he commands. "Don't worry, I'm not going to mess with it. I just want to get back into the storm." he explains. Jeremy shakes his head as he takes Maethus to the antennae. "Ahhh. This is better." the rain pelts Maethus's face, and he is soaked immediately. The thunder starts up again and Maethus raises his right hand towards the sky. "Thunder, breeder of fire. Stop now and let the rain rule." he commands. The Kazan symbol on his hand glows red briefly and the thunder stops immediately. "Rain, such wonder." Maethus lowers his hand and turns back toward Jeremy. "I don't suppose there's a school brass band, is there?" he asks. Jeremy just stares at Maethus's hand in wonder. "Ahh crap!" he casually tosses his left hand and orders the rain to reduce it's downpour. "Oh well. Fair exchange. You know one of my secrets, now tell me one of yours." Jeremy sputters at this demand.  
"What? I never made that deal with you!"  
"It's only fair. You know one of my secrets, so I get to learn one of yours." Maethus slowly approaches the blonde genius.  
"Alright. You reveal your secret to Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd, and we will reveal a collective secret." Jeremy gives up.  
"That's better." Maethus heads down the stairs and to his room, leaving a train of water to stain the carpets and wood. Upon reaching his room, he pauses at the door, pulls out a semi-soggy piece of paper, writes his cell number on it, and quickly slips it under Jeremy's door. Entering his dorm, Maethus is surprised to see eyes amongst the shadows. "How'd you get in here?" Maethus asks, circling the room and ending up in front of his bed. The hidden figure then pounces on Maethus, landing him on his back on the bed.  
"Maethus!" the person says.  
"Legacy?" he asks, looking down on the girl's hair. It was her. Only one person had the triple-striped silver hair that he saw. "You got away from them alright?" he pushes her off of him and sits so that the wall supported his back.  
"It took me three hours of messing with their lights, but I finally got out." She pushes her headband out of her eyes and back over the japanese symbol on her forehead.  
"Looks like there's ONE good thing those guys did to us." Maethus says, drawing a laugh from his friend. "How did you know to come here for me?" Maethus suddenly becomes serious.  
"They wanted me to be the perfect mix of good and bad,and so gave me hacker training. I just had to find the ISP for the LAN and poof, I'm here because of the Shadows." Legacy explains.  
"Shadows, have you seen around here any?"  
"Just the principal, Element. He's letting me enroll." the girl says and lays on the bed with her head on Maethus's lap.  
"I wonder..." he says softly.  
"Hmm?" Legacy looks at him with tired eyes.  
"Nothing. You can sleep here tonight, and we'll find your dorm tomorrow." Maethus runs his fingers through Legacy's hair, letting them rest where the black, white, and grey locks converge.

Maethus awakens the next morning, tasting his friend's hair in his mouth. He spits it out and lits up, carefully moving Legacy off of his lap so as not to disturb her, making his way to look out the window out onto the rising sun. "Too good to be true. We both escaped. But they will come after us. They will not let their precious Projects Element and Shadows get away from them without a fight. They will come searching for us." Legacy wraps her arms arund Maethus's waist.  
"But we will find a way to get away. To a place they will never find us. Isn't thet right, Element?" she asks.  
"It is, Shadows, but I fear it will take us a long time to find such a place." he removes Legacy's arms and turns around to embrace her in his arms. As he does, his phone starts to ring. He picks it up. "Hello?" he says. "Oh, hey Jeremy. When will you reveal your collective secret? Lunch? You don't mind if I expand the deal to include something else on my sode, do you? Good. See you then." he hangs up. "Well, looks like we might have some people on our side, ready to defend us. If I play my cards right, that is."  
"IF?" Legacy stares into Maethus's eyes skeptically. He shrugs.  
"That guy found out about my powers, and so I am forcing him to let me know one of his secrets. He and his friends are going to reveal a collective one, and so I must show them my secret. I proposed to get you in on the secret, but you'll have to reveal one of your powers." his friend glares at him. "It doesn't have to be all three, just one. I, on the other hand, have to reveal all four. They know about the Symbols I have. And one saw them in action." Legacy throws her hands in the air and the two leave Maethus's room, heading separate ways for their classes.

At lunch, Maethus leads Legacy over to the table with Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Yumi. "So, have they agreed?" Maethus asks Jeremy.  
"To what?" the others look at their blonde friend.  
"Yesterday, after he was struck by the lightning, Maethus had me take him to the antennae for the mobiles. There he did, something, and the weather obeyed him. He said it was one of his secrets and that I would have to reveal one of mine. I offered one of our collective ones." Jeremy explains.  
"Oh great. And who's this?" Ulrich shakes his head, looking at Legacy.  
"Legacy." she answers for herself.  
"She wants in on your secret, and she'll reveal one of hers while we're at it." Maethus says. Yumi sighs.  
"We might as well. There's not really anything to do anyways." she jerks her head, taking her food with her and leading the group out into the forest. Ulrich walks up to her side.  
"What are you doing? We can't let them know about Lyoko." he tells her.  
"Don't worry. If XANA notices them with us, he might attack and then we can go back into the past and they won't remember anything." Yumi explains her plan. Ulrich nods and looks down upon the manhole cover. "We're here." Yumi bends over and pulls off the metal disc.  
"Wow, a sewer, what a secret." Maethus says sarcastically.  
"It's what's on the other side that's the secret." Jeremy says. "But first, you will have to demonstrate your secret to these three." Maethus nods and jumps down into the sewer, followed by the others climbing down. Maethus, instead of standing on the cement walkway, was standing on the water. Not in it, ON IT.  
"What the heck?" Ulrich squints to look at Maethus's feet. there were no ripples or anything on the water.  
"Number Two." Maethus points his right hand at the wall and a jet of flame flares out to lick at the dirty sewer wall, leaving burn mark on the stone. "Three." he lowers his right hand and raises his left. A sudden gust of wind comes from the way of the Factory. "And Four." Maethus switches his hands and a chunk of rock floats down the manhole and hovers in front of Jeremy. "I command Wind, Water, Earth, and Fire." he explains.  
"So that's what those symbols on your hands mean." Odd says.  
"No. Those are the basic elements, but the symbols on his hands are different." Yumi disagrees. " 'Jishin' means 'Earthquake', 'Kazan' is 'Volcano', 'Doshaburi' is 'Torrent', and Hariken' is 'Hurricane'. But what I don't understand, is how he can control the lightning."  
"Lightning is basically a combination of Wind, Water, and Fire." Maethus says. "But enough with my secret. We find out yours and Legacy reveals one of hers."

The group climbs up the ladder at the end of the sewer, putting them on the bridge leading to the Factory. "Now THAT looks promising." Maethus says.  
"This is our secret. We come here all the time." Jeremy tells. "And now, it's your turn, Legacy." The girl fidgets under the gaze of thr older students.  
"Hey, it's alright. How about 'Yugure'?" Maethus lays a hand on Legacy's shoulder. She nods and raises her right hand, revealing the japanese symbol 'Yugure'. Seconds pass, and the sky darkens to an almost-night-black.  
" 'Yugure' means 'Nightfall'." Yumi says in awe.  
"You know, we could create a really great spectical for your entertainment for just one more secret revealed." Maethus offers. The four friends huddle together and then turn around.  
"Go for it." they say. Maethus nods to Legacy and they both raise their hands. Clouds gather in the sky by Maethus's silent order, and the sky changes from night to day by Legacy's command. Short bursts of flame spout from Maethus's right hand, while water emerges from his left. As the opening of the show fades, he gets into the REAL part. Maethus summons a gale of wind and also a bolt of lightning to come straight for him. At the last second, he orders it to bend away and strike itself near the bottom of the stormcloud. It causes the air trapped between the bolt's edges to open a visual portal into another world. Jeremy gasps as Aelita appears in the portal. He tears his gaze away from the image and runs into the Factory. But he was not the only one to see the even happening. Everyone in the city saw it. And a certain computer saw it as his chance to strike. The bridge begins to rumble under their feet, and everyone turns to glare at Maethus.  
"It isn't me!" he tells them, lunging for Yumi's hand. He grabs it and then Ulrich's. "Legacy! Get Odd!" he yells over the noise of the shaking bridge. She complies and grabs his arm as he starts to fall. Maethus causes two pieces of the bridge to rise, separating them from the bridge, and raising Maethus and his friends from the collapsing bridge. But the quake does not stop with the bridge. It spreads into the city, shaking the houses, walls, even speading as far as the school. Maethus throws Yumi and Ulrich into the opening for the Factory. "Jeremy ran inside. Go find him. Legacy and I will keep people out here safe." Maethus then glides his bridge cutout over to the earth on the far end of the bridge's remnants. He places his hands on the ground and concentrates. Slowly the ground stops shaking, but then the rain falls heavier.  
"Element!" Legacy yells at him.  
"It's not me! I swear!" Maethus yells back. The wind kicks up into great gusts. The air grows cold as it darkens to deepest midnight.  
"Don't look at me!" Legacy shakes her head and throws up her hands. The wind and rain slam against the ground and walls with such force that it actually causes small craters where they hit. The pain is unbearable, even for Maethus.  
"Return to the clouds!" He commands, pointing his left hand at the sky. As if to defy his orders, the rain falls harder and faster, creating even larger craters in what the raindrops hit. Legacy grabs her friend and they disappear from view, only to reappear at the entrance of the Factory. "I don't get it. Why did the rain not listen to me?" as he speaks, the rain seems to freeze in the air, the wind immediately dies to nothing. "What the?" Maethus and Legacy turn around and are enveloped inside a glowing white light spreading out from the factory.

The group climbs up the ladder at the end of the sewer, putting them on the bridge leading to the Factory. "What the?" Maethus asks, looking around. Jeremy and the others look at eachother. "Wasn't there..." Maethus shakes his head, as if trying to clear his vision. "I couldv'e sworn..."  
"Couldv'e sworn what?" Yumi walks up next to Maethus.  
"Wasn't there a bright flash just now?" Legacy looks about, also perplexed at the predicament. Odd looks at Jeremy, as if wanting an explination from him.  
"Don't look at me." Jeremy says, unfortunately not soft enough to keep it between him, Odd, and Ulrich.  
"Why not? Did you do something?" Legacy glares at him.  
"The rules have changed, Jeremy. We've shown you five of our secrets. You owe us four." Maethus explains.  
"That didn't happen the first time!" Ulrich exclaims, glaring at Jeremy.  
"The first time? So it wasn't just the two of us that noticed?" Legacy asks.  
"Run!" Jeremy says and turns tail, followed closely by Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi.  
"What a strange bunch of people. Well, we'd better get back to the school. How about my room?" Legacy nods and whisks the two of them away, using the shadows to move faster than humanly possible.


	3. Hidden From View

Author's Note 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.  
Author's Note 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).

Hidden From View

Maethus opens the door to his room, ushering Legacy out so that he would be alone when Jeremy arrived at his door. No sooner than Legacy had dissappeared around one corner, did Jeremy appear around the one at the other end of the hall. Maethus flashes him a grin. "Have a good run?" Jeremy stops dead in his tracks.  
"But, how? When?" he stammers and Maethus slowly walks up to him.  
"Legacy. Just now." Maethus answers.  
"Is that one of your secrets?" Jeremy asks, and the other boy shrugs.  
"What other secrets do you have? I know that we put on a display for you and your friends. I know Legacy and I did not dream that. Then something went wrong with the Elements and the Shadows. You dissapeared just before that happened. What do you know?" Maethus blocks Jeremy from entering his room. The blonde hangs his head, defeated.  
"You play a dirty game, Maethus." the other flashes a 'tell-me-something-I-don't-know' grin. "Alright. As you wanted, a total of five secrets. First, the Factory itself. Second, that loop with the lightning revealed a virtual world known as Lyoko. Third and fourth, that girl in the lightning loop is Aelita, and we are trying to get her into our world. Last is a super-computer named XANA that's trying to get rid of the world, and he can control everything but human beings." Maethus nods.  
"Ok, another exchange, because of that light and the flashes during our display. Legacy controls the effects of Light and Darkness. Your next secret?"  
"When XANA attacks, we can return to the past a certain ammount of time so as to erase the memories of people that have seen the event. But, what I don't understand, is how you and Legacy remember." Jeremy explains.  
"It must be that the technology of the world today cannot overpower the Elements of the Old World. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Shadow, Darkness, Light, and... ahh CRAP!!!" Maethus stomps, remembering something. "There was a third! What did they do with him? Legacy!" Maethus yells, turning from Jeremy's door and hurrying down the hall, calling out the younger girl's name. Jeremy enters his room and logs onto the computer.  
"Aelita, are you there?" he asks. After a moment she appears on the screen.  
"Hi Jeremy. What's the matter?"  
"Aelita, the new guy is talking about 'Old World Elements'. Do you have any information on them?"  
"Just a moment Jeremy." Aelita stops for a minute. "Here's what I've found: In the Dark Ages, your people believed in the four Basic Elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Several groups also believed in a set of Evolved Elements, specifically Dark, Light, Shadow, Demonic, Angelic, and Godly. What is it you needed this information for?" the computer program asks.  
"Maethus controlls the basic Elements, or so it seems. Legacy controlls two of the Evolved Elements. And Maethus said something about a third person being like them. This third person could control the Shadow, Daemonic, Angelic, and Godly Elements." Jeremy explains. "Legacy called him 'Element', according to Yumi and the others. I'm so confused." Jeremy rubs his eyes.  
"It could be a, what do your people call them? Second names?"  
"Nick-name. It could be that." Jeremy shakes his head, completely confused.

Maethus finally catches up with Legacy. Grabbing her by the arm, he pulls her into a fairly empty hall. "Legacy. Do you remember anything about where they kept you?" he asks his friend.  
"Not really. It was more or less the same as yours, I think." Legacy answers.  
"Was there any other 'Projects' they spoke of?" she thinks for a minute.  
"Yes, but rarely. Project Daemon, or something like that."  
"I heard them speaking a little about the third 'Project' too. It was something similar to that. But enough for now. We need to talk with Jeremy about his secret other world."

Maethus and Legacy confront Jeremy and his friends at dinner that same day. "Jeremy, we want to make you an offer." he starts.  
"What is this one about?" the blonde genius doesn't look up from his food.  
"We want in Lyoko." Odd spews his soda all over Jeremy's face at Maethus's words.  
"You told him!" Ulrich exclaims, pounding Odd on the back.  
"Not without a return. He said why he thinks he remembers what happened during lunchtime." Jeremy wipes Odd's drink from his face, using his shirt to clean his glasses.  
"And why do you want onto Lyoko in the first place?" Odd manages to stop coughing to ask the question.  
"We are going to be the target of a group of scientists that held us prisoner for over a year. We want to disappear from their sight for a while, so they don't think we still exist. We want to keep away from them." Legacy says. Jeremy looks over to his friends, wanting their input before he descides.  
"You can't be serious! What would we do with them?" Ulrich glares at Jeremy.  
"Well, it WOULD keep our secret a little safer." Jeremy confesses. "We need to check with Aelita and Yumi first, though. It needs to be a majority vote." Maethus nods and the group eats their dinner silently.

After returning to his room, Maethus cannot sleep. He tosses and turns in his bed, trying to remember the details he'd head of the third 'Project'. Hours pass, and Maethus finally finds sleep.  
_Maethus and the group of scientists in charge of him sit at the round table, eating silently. They hear a crash, and look up to see a sixteen-year-old kid being forced into a straight jacket. Maethus looks back to the scientists and jerks his head toward the boy. "That's Project Demon. They're doing horrible things to that kid, I hear." one of the others speak up. "He's supposed to be the most dangerous of the three. It scares me." a third agrees. "He's not like Element or Shadows. Element is here to help reduce natural disasters, and Shadows to help save victums trapped underground. I don't think that kid's going to live long, seeing how they treat him and the rumors we hear." all the scientists agree with this statement.  
_Maethus jerks out of his bed to a knock at the door. "Hey, Maethus, you awake?" comes Jeremy's voice.  
"Yea, just give me a minute." he rolls out of his bed and grabs some clean clothes. Opening the door, Maethus finds Jeremy and his friends all standing outside. "And what do I owe this awakening to?" he yawns.  
"We've voted, and by a three-to-two majority, we regret to inform you..." Jeremy pauses, noting Maethus's downcast look. "that the ruling is you shall live in Lyoko for a while." a smile spreads across Maethus's face at the turn-around of Jeremy's words.  
"It was a tie at first." Yumi says.  
"But Aelita voted for you and Legacy." Odd states.  
"What are you planning on doing about schoolwork?" Ulrich asks.  
"How he was sounding, he's planning on skipping school for the rest of the year." Jeremy sounds confident in his answer. "But, besides that, we need to descide on a virtual form for you, Maethus. And we need to break the news to Legacy." Maethus shakes his head at the sad bit of humor his new friend had.  
"Me and Jeremy could go now to the Factory and get up my character, while the three of you tell Legacy."  
"I." Jeremy says.  
"Huh? What about you?" Maethus looks at the genius.  
"You should've said 'Jeremy and I', not 'Me and Jeremy'." Maethus throws up his hands and walks toward the boiler room, Jeremy close behind.  
"Ok, who wants to tell Legacy?" Is the last thing Maethus and Jeremy hear from the others.

"So like this?" Jeremy asks, sitting at the super-computer.  
"No, they need to have an elemental enchantment that I can put on them." Maethus says.  
"That'll take a while to put into the computer."  
"I can wait." ten minutes pass and Maethus is back looking over Jeremy's shoulder at his character.  
"Now, change the hair. Make it like this." Maethus points to his. "But not black. How about silver?" Jeremy inputs the information into the computer. "No footwear. And a staff. Not like that! Like a walking staff. Taller." Maethus instructs Jeremy, who does as he is told. "Now darker. Darker. That's good." Maethus looks pleased with himself.

Two hours later, and Jeremy finds himself taking orders from Legcy. "Two of them." she says. "And clothes like Maethus's. But not grey. Blue. Lighter. Yes. Can you get boots into this thing? Good. Make them the same blue." She gets giddy seeing her virtual self. "Can you change my hair? Blue. Darker. Like that." Legacy wraps herself around Jeremy's shoulders. "Looks great!"

Jeremy yawns, walking with Legacy back to the school. "Are you excited about Maethus's plan?" he asks.  
"Yes. Those scientist won't know what happened to us." Legacy says with a big grin. "It will be sad to leave the real world, but I've always wanted to be in a virtual reality game."  
"But if you fall off the edge of the lands, then you can never come back. Don't be so careless as to overlook that one detail." Jeremy cautions.  
"If Maethus has as much control in there as he does out here, I shouldn't have to worry about that. He can controll the winds of any place."  
"That's the kind of carelessness I'm talking about. What if he's not around when you fall over the edge? You will be stuck there forever!"  
"If I can get into a shadow, I'll be fine." Jeremy throws up his hands, giving up.  
"Just be careful. I don't want to risk anyone getting infected by XANA's virus." he says softly.  
"Did you say something Jeremy?" Legacy turns to look at the boy. He shakes his head quickly.

Maethus enters the principal's office. "Sir, there's something I need to tell you."  
"Take a seat and speak your mind." the principal motions toward one of the chairs and Maethus sits.  
"My parents want me to move back home with them." he starts.  
"But you've only been here a few days."  
"They want me back because of an incident with their money. Someone has done something and drained their bank accounts. The same has happened with Legacy, but she's in my parent's charge."  
"So what you're saying is that someone hacked into your parent's bank, stole not only their money, but also yours and Legacy's?" the principal looks skeptical at this.  
"We have to go back, sir. One of my father's friends is going to pay for our tickets back, but he doesn't want to get any more involved because of a strain of thefts involving my family for several years." Maethus says sadly.  
"Well, I'm sorry. When do they want you back by?" the principal's voice is touched with sadness.  
"I just got the letter today, and they want us to leave tomorrow."  
"That's kind of a rush job." the principal starts.  
"It's too bad, because some of the thefts were close calls with murderers. I'd hate for something to happen to anyone in this school because of me and Legacy." Maethus continues his sob story.  
"Alright. I'll have my secretary rush for the papers to be filled out." the principal says.  
"Thank you so much, sir. You don't know how much safer you've made this school." Maethus catches the principal's raised eyebrow, but quickly exits the room before another question is asked.

Late the same night, a tall person wrapped entirely in black enters the campus gates, searching for something. He makes not a sound, his feet don't crunch the fallen leaves. He crosses the courtyard and opens the door leading into the gymnasium, letting it slam but making no noise. His footsteps echo loudly throughout the halls, awakening the light sleepers and causing them to either feel a demonic or angelic presense, whichever is opposite their personality. His steps faulter as he passes one of the dorm rooms. Light shines beneath the door, not the kind of light from a lamp or overhead light, but one such as a computer or television emits. He returns to the door and lays his left palm against it, calling upon the powers they had given him. "Those two should be ready for the jump tomorrow. I just hope that Maethus's plan works out how he wants it." the voice says. "It will be strange for you to have company, won't it Aelita?" the man removes his hand and proceeds down the hall, back the way he came, making the light sleepers fall back asleep with his second passing, but causing them to suffer nightmares about the being that had awakened them from their slumber. He knew the two they searched for were here, he'd completely removed the last bit of doubt upon hearing the muffled voice's conversation with himself. She would be wherever he was, the man knew, she never was away from his side if she could help it. Demons and Angels know what rest in the hearts of man, and Daemon was no differant than those legendary creatures.


	4. The Dive

Author's Note 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.  
Author's Note 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).

The Dive

Maethus and Legacy met early the next morning, neither had been able to sleep well the past night. "I just can't believe we are getting away from them!" Legacy says.  
"Just remember, if they show any possibility of harming the school, we come back." Maethus rests his hands on her shoulders.  
"I know. You've told me this every time we've talked about going." Legacy leans back into her friend's arms. She knew he'd always be there for her. "It's just, there's going to be so much free time. XANA doesn't attack every day." Maethus thinks and his face brightens.  
"How about a little music?" he asks. Legacy turns to look him in the face. "As in a band." he states.  
"Oh!" Legacy feels stupid, having not realized his intentions. "Wonder how long it would take Jeremy?" Maethus shrugs.  
"Don't know. Let's ask him." he reaches for his cell phone. "Hey, Jeremy. Do you think you could do us a favor? Just a little something for our time in Lyoko. Really? Thanks." Maethus hangs up. "He says he can, but wants to know what. We're to meet him at the Factory." Legacy nods and within minutes they are inside the Factory's elevator, waiting for Jeremy to arrive on foot.

Jeremy arrives at the Factory minutes later, wondering what Maethus wanted him to put into Lyoko. Sliding down one of the ropes, he enters the elevator along with Maethus and Legacy. "So, what did you want me to create on Lyoko?" he asks the two. Maethus whispers into Jeremy's ear, drawing a curious glance from the boy. "It'll take some time, but I think I can do it." Maethus smiles and Jeremy steps off into the control room. Within minutes the two stand in the scanner room, ready to leave.  
"Well, this'll be our last moments on Earth. Anything you want to say before we depart?" Maethus jokingly says in a somber voice as they step into the scanners.  
"I love you." Legacy answers, just before the doors close and the two are virtualized.

Maethus and Legacy virtualize in Lyoko's Forest Region. Maethus stands in a dark grey ninja-type outfit. He has a wooden staff strapped to his back. The symbols on his hands glow a light grey. Legacy stands at his back, wearing a deep blue ninja-type outfit. Across her back is strapped two swords. The symbols on her hands and forehead also glow a light grey. "Did you say something, Legacy?" Maethus turns his head to look at her. "Copycat."  
"No I'm not! You copied me!" Legacy tries to avoid his question, even though she knew she'd lose the argument.

"Strange." Daemon says. He'd lost the feeling of Maethus and Legacy. He looks down onto the schoolgrounds from the roof and prepares to jump down.


	5. Demise

Author's Note 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.  
Author's Note 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).

Demise

"You LOST THEM!" the scientist yells at Daemon.  
"Don't blame me, they just disappeared." Daemon replies.  
"It is your fault. You were supposed to find them and return them here!" the scientist shoves Daemon, knocking him to the ground, causing the symbol Akuma to glow with a bottomless black light. Daemon's eyes glow with the same darkness, and the scientist gasps, feeling the life being sucked from him.  
"Don't you ever touch me again!" Daemon orders, standing and leaving the scientist to die of suffocation.

* * *

Weeks pass, Daemon swearing that he's lived a few of the days twice. He has left the facility of the scientists and lived in the mountains between France and Germany. Finally, he senses the old feeling of the Elements and Shadows being controlled. He smiles, his teeth stained with blood from the raw meat he'd been forced to eat, lest the scientists find him again. Daemon knew that to find Element and Shadows he should not be in control, his human limitations would slow him down. Instead, he knelt in his cave and pledged himself to any of his three guardian beings that would be listening. Unfortunately, it was the Demon that answered.

* * *

Maethus leaps out of the scanner, glad that it was the weekend, and that Jeremy had thought about having the two devirtualized. He seemed overly excited to return, since it had only been six weeks. Legacy, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen in the scanner room. As soon as she had exited the scanner, she travelled in the shadows to the surface, eager to see the real sky.

As Maethus and the others step off the elevator, Legacy steps up to the ledge where the ropes had been and throws a light-ball at Maethus's feet. "What the?" he steps back and looks up. This time Legacy drops a darkness-ball over Maethus's hands. "Oh, you want to play it that way, huh?" Maethus motions for the other four to go ahead. He concentrates and several plots of earth float into the factory from behind Legacy, creating an air-supported stairway from Maethus to Legacy. "Nothing is as good as how the crow flys." Maethus says, running up the plots and throwing his arms around the girl. He just could not help himself. For some reason, he felt as if everything was alright. Lightning crackles outside, and the sky grows dim.

* * *

Daemon descends from the darkened sky, born upon wings of deepest night. His eyes shone ruby-red and flecks of ruby-red light flickered at the corners. Daemon's hands were gloved, a black and white one on his right hand, while a grey and red one was on his left. He called upon a lightning bolt and gripped it with his left hand, waiting for his chance.

* * *

Maethus lets the ground plots drop to the factory's floor, not caring about the rain that was outside, just glad that he was back on earth. "I didn't realize how much I missed it." he looks out the front of the factory, watching the rain fall. He saw the lightning fall from the clouds, but it did not fall for long. It just stood there in the sky. "Uhhh, that doesn't happen too much, does it?" Maethus points at the lightning bolt, unable to see the person holding it. Jeremy walks to his side, completely amazed.  
"I have never seen lightning do that. What do you think is causing it?" he asks. Legacy squints at the bolt and points her left hand at it, the light flaring brightly and revealing Daemon, black wings and all.  
"You don't think..." Yumi looks at the others, one by one.  
"Not XANA. Demon." Maethus shakes his head. "Project Demon." Legacy grabs Maethus's arm, terrified of what could happen. "Leave this to me. Take the others back to Kadic." he orders the girl. Silently, the five link hands and disappear, leaving Maethus alone to face Daemon.

* * *

The Demon watched as the humans gathered at the entrance. He felt the warmth of the lightning bolt grow as Shadows illuminated his weapon, and could see the heat trail left in the shadows by her passing. He could sense the air being manipulated by Element. "So, we meet at last, Element." he says, knowing the wind would carry the message to the boy. "You and Shadows have given me some problems. I knew you were here. Knew weeks ago. No reason to come, until now. You two threaten my very existance. With you two gone, THEY have nothing to use against me." The Demon descends to the bridge of the factory, watching as Element stood his ground, the fear on his face. "You know who I am. You know part of what I am. I am the Angels. I am the Gods. I am the Demons. You are the Earth. You are the Fire, Wind, and Water. You really think you can stand against my powers?"  
"We shall see, Daemon." Maethus says.  
"Daemon? He is gone. Only Demon remains. And so it should be." the Demon throws the lightning bolt at Maethus, striking him full in the chest but doing no damage.  
"You are trying to use my own power against me. Useless." he states.  
"Maybe, but what about something you cannot control? Something like the power of the Gods of the Old Worlds." the Demon removes the glove from his left hand, revealing the Kami symbol. "They bestowed me with the three greatest gifts, and the three greatest curses. You will fall before the Ultamite God. The One True God. The Living God of Demons." the Demon points his hand, palm out, at Maethus. "Now die!" he commands. A dark beam shoots from his hand and strikes the air in front of Maethus, knocking back a grey human-shaped figure, Legacy. She collapses into Maethus's arms, weakly pointing her right hand at the Demon.  
"Legacy...." Maethus kneels to lay her on the ground. Her arm falls, and Maethus could feel her body growing cold by the second. He stands slowly, glaring at the Demon.  
"You foolish humans. You sacrifice yourselves for nothing." the Demon laughs and points his right hand at Maethus, and a bolt of darkness shoots out, striking Maethus in the chest. He does not flinch. "What? How is this possible?" the Demon watches Maethus walk slowly towards him, summoning a sword of earth, fire, water, and lightning to his hand.

* * *

The lights flicker on and off at Kadic Junior High. Noone thought the flicker was the result of the death of elements. None thought twice about it, save for four students. But even they grew to forget, focusing more on freeing their friend from a virus from another world, and the battle between Demon and Element was forgotten entirely.


	6. The Living Element

Disclaimer 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else.

Disclaimer 2: The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), and Daemon(aka Project Demon).

The Living Element

The scientists gather around the large tube that held their experiment. Mastery of the Old Elements, the project had been started twenty years ago, but none of the subjects lasted more than three moths with the enhancements. That is, until this one. The boy in the cylinder had been wandering the streets when the scientists had found him nearly a year previous. Nothing they knew of the Old Elements could prepare them for what happened next. The boy's eyes opened slowly, revealing the same grey that always acompanied thunderstorms. "He's awake." one scientist says. The boy's eyes glow blue, and the water is pushed outward from his body, shattering the glass and flinging it into electrical equipment, walls, and even the scientists themselves. He hears their screams of pain, but does not care. One hits a large red button on the wall. "Emergency! Project Element is loose!" the scientist then drops to the ground. The boy walks over to the button and smashes it in with his right hand, causing cracks to spiderweb out from the button across the wall. As he leaves the building, he grabs the clothes they had made for him, grey pants, shirt, vest, and cape. He takes one final look around and sees a metal plaque on the cylinder. 'Maethus, Project Element'. He rases his left hand and some of the water floats into the air. The water then pounds on the plaque until the words are all eroded by the water.

Maethus sits in the waiting room of a private school he'd found in a nearby city. The principal's secretary entered the room and handed him a clipboard with enrollment forms on it. "Sign those, and then we'll see what the principal says." the secretary says. Maethus reaches for the clipboard, and the secretary raises and eyebrow at the symbol on his hand. He quickly hides his hands from the secretary's view, and begins filling out the papers. A few minutes pass, and a black-clothed girl enters the office.

"The principal wanted to see me?" she asks.

"Ms. Ishiyama, the principal is expecting you." the secretary nods and points to the door. The girl enters the room and Maethus goes back to his paperwork. He finishes and hands the clipboard back to the secretary, making sure he keeps his hands covered. "He'll let you know when he's done with Ms. Ishiyama." Maethus nods and sits down again. Within seconds, the Principal opens the door and takes the clipboard from the secretary. He motions for Maethus to follow him. Maethus does and sits next to the Ishiyama girl. After a few minutes, the principal speaks.

"Maethus, is it?" he nods. "Alright. Everything looks good. Ms Ishiyama will show you the school. Your classes will officially start tomorrow morning. You two are dismissed." the two leave the principal's office, Maethus crossing his arms across his chest.

"What a waste of a morning." Maethus says. The girl notices part of the mark on his right hand.

"Jinshin..." she starts, and Maethus pulls his sleeve over his hand.

"I wouldn't read that if I were you. Could cause problems." he continues walking.

"I'm Yumi. What's with the hair?" she asks.

"Maethus. A mark from a past experience."

"You don't talk much, do you?" Yumi takes bigger steps and is alongside Maethus.

"No." he agrees.

"How about I introduce you to some of my friends?" he shrugs. "Alright, I'll take that as a yes. Follow me." Yumi says. She leads him to the lunch room and over to her table with Jeremy, Ulrich, and Odd. "Hey guys."

"Who's your new friend?" Odd asks as the two sit down.

"Maethus." he answers for himself.

"Cool hair."

"Not too bad with your own."

"That's Odd. He's Jeremy." Yumi nods toward the blonde. "And Ulrich." he half-waves.

"How'd you get your hair like that?" Jeremy asks. "It looks natural."

"It is. Naturally synthetic." Maethus grabs a roll off Ulrich's plate.

"Huh?" Odd looks at Jeremy.

"He means it's man-made with natural materials. Strange way to make hair." Jeremy explains. Maethus shrugs, not really caring. "Gee, you're really talkative."

"I could've told you that." Yumi says. Maethus shakes his head and bites into the roll.

"You could at least say thanks." Ulrich watches Odd steal some of his lunch.

After lunch, Yumi leads him to his dorm. "Since you don't have a roomate, your dorm is over here near Jeremy's. If you ever need to contact one of us, then you can go through Jeremy. I've got to get to class, so I'll leave you alone now." Yumi says.

"Have fun." he opens his door and looks inside. Looking around, Maethus spots the computer and logs into the internet. He types in a url, and he instantly is swamped with moderator messages. "Damn it. Too many new messages." He quickly skims through them all and creates a new topic in the 'Forums' area. "'I have just returned, and believe me that you would not want to be in my shoes at the moment.'" He posts the topic and then checks his personal messages. One catches his eye and he reads it aloud. "'Have you gotten out yet, Element?'" he clicks the reply button. "'Finally, after five months. But they have done something to me. I have not fully found the extent of their tampering. Let me know when you get out, Shadows.'" he sends the reply and turns from the computer. "They still hold her, and even if I must return, I WILL free Shadow." Maethus opens his door at a knock.

"Hey kid. Here's your stuff." the gym teacher, Jim, hands Maethus's five suitcases to him. "Sheeze, what do you have in there? An army?" Jim asks. Maethus shrugs and tosses the suitcases onto his bed. "Well, don't be late to my class tomorrow. Running's the punishment." Jim gives Maethus a thumbs up and leaves, closing the door on his way. Maethus begins unpacking, taking a short sword from a suitcase and hides it under his mattress.

The final class bell rings, and Maethus makes his way outside to watch the sky. He practically runs into Sissy in his rush. "Hey, watch where you're going!" she yells at him. He ignores her and continues, sensing a storm brewing in the cloudy sky. Yumi sees him and waves.

"Hello again." Maethus says, a big grin on his face.

"What's got you so happy?" Ulrich asks.

"Storm coming."

"And that's a good thing?" Odd looks at Jeremy, as if expecting him to answer. Jeremy gives him a 'don't look at me' expression.

"Rain, and lots of it. Thunder, stronger than ever seen before." Maethus climbs the tree and sticks the upper half of his body out the top, watching the clouds darken, feeling a few raindrops on his face. "It's coming! It's coming!" he spreads his arms, letting the sleeves uncover his hands, and Yumi gets a look at both his hands.

"Now that's really strange." she says.

"What? How he's acting?" Jeremy looks at his friend.

"No, his hands. Jishin, Kazan, Doshaburi, Hariken."

"Aren't those japanese words?" Ulrich asks.

"Yes. Earthquake, Volcano, Torrent, and Hurricane. But what I can't tell is if they are birth-marks or tatoos or what." Yumi shakes her head. "He's so strange."

"Come, Lighting! Strike upon me! Grant me your power!" as if answering his call, a blood-red lightning bolt falls from the clouds and strikes Maethus in his chest, burning a hole in his shirt and knocking him to the ground beneath the tree, knocking him unconcious. The rain starts, at first slowly, then gaining in strength. Soon everyone is forced to retreat inside, to the safety of the brick walls of the school. Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Odd carry Maethus to the infermary.

"What happened to him?" the nurse asks.

"He climbed a tree and got struck by lightning." Odd says as they lay Maethus on one of the beds.

"He did WHAT?" the nurse looks in shock. "By all truth, he should be fried because of where it hit." she notices Maethus's chest rising and falling slowly.

"But he's not, and that's strange enough on it's own." Jeremy says. He and the others leave Maethus in the nurse's care. "I'll see you guys later. I'm going to check in with Aelita." Jeremy heads off towards his room, leaving Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi to find something to do on their own within the school.

"Aelita, can you hear me?" Jeremy asks. The virtual resident of Lyoko appears on the screen.

"Hi Jeremy." she says with her usual smile.

"Aelita, have you sensed any pulsations lately?"

"No, why?"

"There's this new kid. He seemed to have called some lightning and rain. I'll start a scan in case there IS an activated tower." Aelita nods and dissapears from the screen.

Jeremy looks at his computer. "This is so strange. The rain is still falling, but it doesn't seem to be XANA's doing." Jeremy says when Aelita appears.

"I didn't sense any pulsations, Jeremy." she says.

"That's alright Aelita. I'll see you later." Jeremy logs off his computer and leaves his room to see if the nurse had figured anything out about Maethus.

"Get away I said!" Jeremy hears Maethus's voice yelling, apparently at the nurse. "I said I'm alright!" Jeremy opens the door, only to hide behind it as Maethus throws a needle at the door.

"Is this a bad time?" Jeremy asks, peaking around the door, hoping to reduce potential targets.

"If he thinks he's alright then just get him out of here!" the nurse orders Jeremy.

"Finally!" Maethus jumps out of the bed and runs out the door, grabing Jeremy's arm and dragging him along. Maethus stops, out of breath. "Where's the highest point in the school?" he asks.

"Uhhh, that would be the antennae for our mobiles." Jeremy says, curious as to Maethus's plans.

"Take me there." he commands. "Don't worry, I'm not going to mess with it. I just want to get back into the storm." he explains. Jeremy shakes his head as he takes Maethus to the antennae. "Ahhh. This is better." the rain pelts Maethus's face, and he is soaked immediately. The thunder starts up again and Maethus raises his right hand towards the sky. "Thunder, breeder of fire. Stop now and let the rain rule." he commands. The Kazan symbol on his hand glows red briefly and the thunder stops immediately. "Rain, such wonder." Maethus lowers his hand and turns back toward Jeremy. "I don't suppose there's a school brass band, is there?" he asks. Jeremy just stares at Maethus's hand in wonder. "Ahh crap!" he casually tosses his left hand and orders the rain to reduce it's downpour. "Oh well. Fair exchange. You know one of my secrets, now tell me one of yours." Jeremy sputters at this demand.

"What? I never made that deal with you!"

"It's only fair. You know one of my secrets, so I get to learn one of yours." Maethus slowly approaches the blonde genius.

"Alright. You reveal your secret to Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd, and we will reveal a collective secret." Jeremy gives up.

"That's better." Maethus heads down the stairs and to his room, leaving a train of water to stain the carpets and wood. Upon reaching his room, he pauses at the door, pulls out a semi-soggy piece of paper, writes his cell number on it, and quickly slips it under Jeremy's door. Entering his dorm, Maethus is surprised to see eyes amongst the shadows. "How'd you get in here?" Maethus asks, circling the room and ending up in front of his bed. The hidden figure then pounces on Maethus, landing him on his back on the bed.

"Maethus!" the person says.

"Legacy?" he asks, looking down on the girl's hair. It was her. Only one person had the triple-striped silver hair that he saw. "You got away from them alright?" he pushes her off of him and sits so that the wall supported his back.

"It took me three hours of messig with their lights, but I finally got out." She pushes her headband out of her eyes and back over the japanese symbol on her forehead.

"Looks like there's ONE good thing those guys did to us." Maethus says, drawing a laugh from his friend. "How did you know to come here for me?" Maethus suddenly becomes serious.

"They wanted me to be the perfect mix of good and bad,and so gave me hacker training. I just had to find the ISP for the LAN and poof, I'm here because of the Shadows." Legacy explains.

"Shadows, have you seen around here any?"

"Just the principal, Element. He's letting me enroll." the girl says and lays on the bed with her head on Maethus's lap.

"I wonder..." he says softly.

"Hmm?" Legacy looks at him with tired eyes.

"Nothing. You can sleep here tonight, and we'll find your dorm tomorrow." Maethus runs his fingers through Legacy's hair, letting them rest where the black, white, and grey locks converge.

Maethus awakens the next morning, tasting his friend's hair in his mouth. He spits it out and lits up, carefully moving Legacy off of his lap so as not to disturb her, making his way to look out the window out onto the rising sun. "Too good to be true. We both escaped. But they will come after us. They will not let their precious Projects Element and Shadows get away from them without a fight. They will come searching for us." Legacy wraps her arms arund Maethus's waist.

"But we will find a way to get away. To a place they will never find us. Isn't thet right, Element?" she asks.

"It is, Shadows, but I fear it will take us a long time to find such a place." he removes Legacy's arms and turns around to embrace her in his arms. As he does, his phone starts to ring. He picks it up. "Hello?" he says. "Oh, hey Jeremy. When will you reveal your collective secret? Lunch? You don't mind if I expand the deal to include something else on my sode, do you? Good. See you then." he hangs up. "Well, looks like we might have some people on our side, ready to defend us. If I play my cards right, that is."

"IF?" Legacy stares into Maethus's eyes skeptically. He shrugs.

"That guy found out about my powers, and so I am forcing him to let me know one of his secrets. He and his friends are going to reveal a collective one, and so I must show them my secret. I proposed to get you in on the secret, but you'll have to reveal one of your powers." his friend glares at him. "It doesn't have to be all three, just one. I, on the other hand, have to reveal all four. They know about the Symbols I have. And one saw them in action." Legacy throws her hands in the air and the two leave Maethus's room, heading separate ways for their classes.

At lunch, Maethus leads Legacy over to the table with Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Yumi. "So, have they agreed?" Maethus asks Jeremy.

"To what?" the others look at their blonde friend.

"Yesterday, after he was struck by the lightning, Maethus had me take him to the antennae for the mobiles. There he did, something, and the weather obeyed him. He said it was one of his secrets and that I would have to reveal one of mine. I offered one of our collective ones." Jeremy explains.

"Oh great. And who's this?" Ulrich shakes his head, looking at Legacy.

"Legacy." she answers for herself.

"She wants in on your secret, and she'll reveal one of hers while we're at it." Maethus says. Yumi sighs.

"We might as well. There's not really anything to do anyways." she jerks her head, taking her food with her and leading the group out into the forest. Ulrich walks up to her side.

"What are you doing? We can't let them know about Lyoko." he tells her.

"Don't worry. If XANA notices them with us, he might attack and then we can go back into the past and they won't remember anything." Yumi explains her plan. Ulrich nods and looks down upon the manhole cover. "We're here." Yumi bends over and pulls off the metal disc.

"Wow, a sewer, what a secret." Maethus says sarcastically.

"It's what's on the other side that's the secret." Jeremy says. "But first, you will have to demonstrate your secret to these three." Maethus nods and jumps down into the sewer, followed by the others climbing down. Maethus, instead of standing on the cement walkway, was standing on the water. Not in it, ON IT.

"What the heck?" Ulrich squints to look at Maethus's feet. there were no ripples or anything on the water.

"Number Two." Maethus points his right hand at the wall and a jet of flame flares out to lick at the dirty sewer wall, leaving burn mark on the stone. "Three." he lowers his right hand and raises his left. A sudden gust of wind comes from the way of the Factory. "And Four." Maethus switches his hands and a chunk of rock floats down the manhole and hovers in front of Jeremy. "I command Wind, Water, Earth, and Fire." he explains.

"So that's what those symbols on your hands mean." Odd says.

"No. Those are the basic elements, but the symbols on his hands are different." Yumi disagrees. " 'Jishin' means 'Earthquake', 'Kazan' is 'Volcano', 'Doshaburi' is 'Torrent', and Hariken' is 'Hurricane'. But what I don't understand, is how he can control the lightning."

"Lightning is basically a combination of Wind, Water, and Fire." Maethus says. "But enough with my secret. We find out yours and Legacy reveals one of hers."

The group climbs up the ladder at the end of the sewer, putting them on the bridge leading to the Factory. "Now THAT looks promising." Maethus says.

"This is our secret. We come here all the time." Jeremy tells. "And now, it's your turn, Legacy." The girl fidgets under the gaze of thr older students.

"Hey, it's alright. How about 'Yugure'?" Maethus lays a hand on Legacy's shoulder. She nods and raises her right hand, revealing the japanese symbol 'Yugure'. Seconds pass, and the sky darkens to an almost-night-black.

" 'Yugure' means 'Nightfall'." Yumi says in awe.

"You know, we could create a really great spectical for your entertainment for just one more secret revealed." Maethus offers. The four friends huddle together and then turn around.

"Go for it." they say. Maethus nods to Legacy and they both raise their hands. Clouds gather in the sky by Maethus's silent order, and the sky changes from night to day by Legacy's command. Short bursts of flame spout from Maethus's right hand, while water emerges from his left. As the opening of the show fades, he gets into the REAL part. Maethus summons a gale of wind and also a bolt of lightning to come straight for him. At the last second, he orders it to bend away and strike itself near the bottom of the stormcloud. It causes the air trapped between the bolt's edges to open a visual portal into another world. Jeremy gasps as Aelita appears in the portal. He tears his gaze away from the image and runs into the Factory. But he was not the only one to see the even happening. Everyone in the city saw it. And a certain computer saw it as his chance to strike. The bridge begins to rumble under their feet, and everyone turns to glare at Maethus.

"It isn't me!" he tells them, lunging for Yumi's hand. He grabs it and then Ulrich's. "Legacy! Get Odd!" he yells over the noise of the shaking bridge. She complies and grabs his arm as he starts to fall. Maethus causes two pieces of the bridge to rise, separating them from the bridge, and raising Maethus and his friends from the collapsing bridge. But the quake does not stop with the bridge. It spreads into the city, shaking the houses, walls, even speading as far as the school. Maethus throws Yumi and Ulrich into the opening for the Factory. "Jeremy ran inside. Go find him. Legacy and I will keep people out here safe." Maethus then glides his bridge cutout over to the earth on the far end of the bridge's remnants. He places his hands on the ground and concentrates. Slowly the ground stops shaking, but then the rain falls heavier.

"Element!" Legacy yells at him.

"It's not me! I swear!" Maethus yells back. The wind kicks up into great gusts. The air grows cold as it darkens to deepest midnight.

"Don't look at me!" Legacy shakes her head and throws up her hands. The wind and rain slam against the ground and walls with such force that it actually causes small craters where they hit. The pain is unbearable, even for Maethus.

"Return to the clouds!" He commands, pointing his left hand at the sky. As if to defy his orders, the rain falls harder and faster, creating even larger craters in what the raindrops hit. Legacy grabs her friend and they disappear from view, only to reappear at the entrance of the Factory. "I don't get it. Why did the rain not listen to me?" as he speaks, the rain seems to freeze in the air, the wind immediately dies to nothing. "What the?" Maethus and Legacy turn around and are enveloped inside a glowing white light spreading out from the factory.

The group climbs up the ladder at the end of the sewer, putting them on the bridge leading to the Factory. "What the?" Maethus asks, looking around. Jeremy and the others look at eachother. "Wasn't there..." Maethus shakes his head, as if trying to clear his vision. "I couldv'e sworn..."

"Couldv'e sworn what?" Yumi walks up next to Maethus.

"Wasn't there a bright flash just now?" Legacy looks about, also perplexed at the predicament. Odd looks at Jeremy, as if wanting an explination from him.

"Don't look at me." Jeremy says, unfortunately not soft enough to keep it between him, Odd, and Ulrich.

"Why not? Did you do something?" Legacy glares at him.

"The rules have changed, Jeremy. We've shown you five of our secrets. You owe us four." Maethus explains.

"That didn't happen the first time!" Ulrich exclaims, glaring at Jeremy.

"The first time? So it wasn't just the two of us that noticed?" Legacy asks.

"Run!" Jeremy says and turns tail, followed closely by Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi.

"What a strange bunch of people. Well, we'd better get back to the school. How about my room?" Legacy nods and whisks the two of them away, using the shadows to move faster than humanly possible.

Maethus opens the door to his room, ushering Legacy out so that he would be alone when Jeremy arrived at his door. No sooner than Legacy had dissappeared around one corner, did Jeremy appear around the one at the other end of the hall. Maethus flashes him a grin. "Have a good run?" Jeremy stops dead in his tracks.

"But, how? When?" he stammers and Maethus slowly walks up to him.

"Legacy. Just now." Maethus answers.

"Is that one of your secrets?" Jeremy asks, and the other boy shrugs.

"What other secrets do you have? I know that we put on a display for you and your friends. I know Legacy and I did not dream that. Then something went wrong with the Elements and the Shadows. You dissapeared just before that happened. What do you know?" Maethus blocks Jeremy from entering his room. The blonde hangs his head, defeated.

"You play a dirty game, Maethus." the other flashes a 'tell-me-something-I-don't-know' grin. "Alright. As you wanted, a total of five secrets. First, the Factory itself. Second, that loop with the lightning revealed a virtual world known as Lyoko. Third and fourth, that girl in the lightning loop is Aelita, and we are trying to get her into our world. Last is a super-computer named XANA that's trying to get rid of the world, and he can control everything but human beings." Maethus nods.

"Ok, another exchange, because of that light and the flashes during our display. Legacy controls the effects of Light and Darkness. Your next secret?"

"When XANA attacks, we can return to the past a certain ammount of time so as to erase the memories of people that have seen the event. But, what I don't understand, is how you and Legacy remember." Jeremy explains.

"It must be that the technology of the world today cannot overpower the Elements of the Old World. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Shadow, Darkness, Light, and... ahh CRAP!" Maethus stomps, remembering something. "There was a third! What did they do with him? Legacy!" Maethus yells, turning from Jeremy's door and hurrying down the hall, calling out the younger girl's name. Jeremy enters his room and logs onto the computer.

"Aelita, are you there?" he asks. After a moment she appears on the screen.

"Hi Jeremy. What's the matter?"

"Aelita, the new guy is talking about 'Old World Elements'. Do you have any information on them?"

"Just a moment Jeremy." Aelita stops for a minute. "Here's what I've found: In the Dark Ages, your people believed in the four Basic Elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Several groups also believed in a set of Evolved Elements, specifically Dark, Light, Shadow, Demonic, Angelic, and Godly. What is it you needed this information for?" the computer program asks.

"Maethus controlls the basic Elements, or so it seems. Legacy controlls two of the Evolved Elements. And Maethus said something about a third person being like them. This third person could control the Shadow, Daemonic, Angelic, and Godly Elements." Jeremy explains. "Legacy called him 'Element', according to Yumi and the others. I'm so confused." Jeremy rubs his eyes.

"It could be a, what do your people call them? Second names?"

"Nick-name. It could be that." Jeremy shakes his head, completely confused.

Maethus finally catches up with Legacy. Grabbing her by the arm, he pulls her into a fairly empty hall. "Legacy. Do you remember anything about where they kept you?" he asks his friend.

"Not really. It was more or less the same as yours, I think." Legacy answers.

"Was there any other 'Projects' they spoke of?" she thinks for a minute.

"Yes, but rarely. Project Daemon, or something like that."

"I heard them speaking a little about the third 'Project' too. It was something similar to that. But enough for now. We need to talk with Jeremy about his secret other world."

Maethus and Legacy confront Jeremy and his friends at dinner that same day. "Jeremy, we want to make you an offer." he starts.

"What is this one about?" the blonde genius doesn't look up from his food.

"We want in Lyoko." Odd spews his soda all over Jeremy's face at Maethus's words.

"You told him!" Ulrich exclaims, pounding Odd on the back.

"Not without a return. He said why he thinks he remembers what happened during lunchtime." Jeremy wipes Odd's drink from his face, using his shirt to clean his glasses.

"And why do you want onto Lyoko in the first place?" Odd manages to stop coughing to ask the question.

"We are going to be the target of a group of scientists that held us prisoner for over a year. We want to disappear from their sight for a while, so they don't think we still exist. We want to keep away from them." Legacy says. Jeremy looks over to his friends, wanting their input before he descides.

"You can't be serious! What would we do with them?" Ulrich glares at Jeremy.

"Well, it WOULD keep our secret a little safer." Jeremy confesses. "We need to check with Aelita and Yumi first, though. It needs to be a majority vote." Maethus nods and the group eats their dinner silently.

After returning to his room, Maethus cannot sleep. He tosses and turns in his bed, trying to remember the details he'd head of the third 'Project'. Hours pass, and Maethus finally finds sleep.

_Maethus and the group of scientists in charge of him sit at the round table, eating silently. They hear a crash, and look up to see a sixteen-year-old kid being forced into a straight jacket. Maethus looks back to the scientists and jerks his head toward the boy. "That's Project Demon. They're doing horrible things to that kid, I hear." one of the others speak up. "He's supposed to be the most dangerous of the three. It scares me." a third agrees. "He's not like Element or Shadows. Element is here to help reduce natural disasters, and Shadows to help save victums trapped underground. I don't think that kid's going to live long, seeing how they treat him and the rumors we hear." all the scientists agree with this statement._

Maethus jerks out of his bed to a knock at the door. "Hey, Maethus, you awake?" comes Jeremy's voice.

"Yea, just give me a minute." he rolls out of his bed and grabs some clean clothes. Opening the door, Maethus finds Jeremy and his friends all standing outside. "And what do I owe this awakening to?" he yawns.

"We've voted, and by a three-to-two majority, we regret to inform you..." Jeremy pauses, noting Maethus's downcast look. "that the ruling is you shall live in Lyoko for a while." a smile spreads across Maethus's face at the turn-around of Jeremy's words.

"It was a tie at first." Yumi says.

"But Aelita voted for you and Legacy." Odd states.

"What are you planning on doing about schoolwork?" Ulrich asks.

"How he was sounding, he's planning on skipping school for the rest of the year." Jeremy sounds confident in his answer. "But, besides that, we need to descide on a virtual form for you, Maethus. And we need to break the news to Legacy." Maethus shakes his head at the sad bit of humor his new friend had.

"Me and Jeremy could go now to the Factory and get up my character, while the three of you tell Legacy."

"I." Jeremy says.

"Huh? What about you?" Maethus looks at the genius.

"You should've said 'Jeremy and I', not 'Me and Jeremy'." Maethus throws up his hands and walks toward the boiler room, Jeremy close behind.

"Ok, who wants to tell Legacy?" Is the last thing Maethus and Jeremy hear from the others.

"So like this?" Jeremy asks, sitting at the super-computer.

"No, they need to have an elemental enchantment that I can put on them." Maethus says.

"That'll take a while to put into the computer."

"I can wait." ten minutes pass and Maethus is back looking over Jeremy's shoulder at his character.

"Now, change the hair. Make it like this." Maethus points to his. "But not black. How about silver?" Jeremy inputs the information into the computer. "No footwear. And a staff. Not like that! Like a walking staff. Taller." Maethus instructs Jeremy, who does as he is told. "Now darker. Darker. That's good." Maethus looks pleased with himself.

Two hours later, and Jeremy finds himself taking orders from Legcy. "Two of them." she says. "And clothes like Maethus's. But not grey. Blue. Lighter. Yes. Can you get boots into this thing? Good. Make them the same blue." She gets giddy seeing her virtual self. "Can you change my hair? Blue. Darker. Like that." Legacy wraps herself around Jeremy's shoulders. "Looks great!"

Jeremy yawns, walking with Legacy back to the school. "Are you excited about Maethus's plan?" he asks.

"Yes. Those scientist won't know what happened to us." Legacy says with a big grin. "It will be sad to leave the real world, but I've always wanted to be in a virtual reality game."

"But if you fall off the edge of the lands, then you can never come back. Don't be so careless as to overlook that one detail." Jeremy cautions.

"If Maethus has as much control in there as he does out here, I shouldn't have to worry about that. He can controll the winds of any place."

"That's the kind of carelessness I'm talking about. What if he's not around when you fall over the edge? You will be stuck there forever!"

"If I can get into a shadow, I'll be fine." Jeremy throws up his hands, giving up.

"Just be careful. I don't want to risk anyone getting infected by XANA's virus." he says softly.

"Did you say something Jeremy?" Legacy turns to look at the boy. He shakes his head quickly.

Maethus enters the principal's office. "Sir, there's something I need to tell you."

"Take a seat and speak your mind." the principal motions toward one of the chairs and Maethus sits.

"My parents want me to move back home with them." he starts.

"But you've only been here a few days."

"They want me back because of an incident with their money. Someone has done something and drained their bank accounts. The same has happened with Legacy, but she's in my parent's charge."

"So what you're saying is that someone hacked into your parent's bank, stole not only their money, but also yours and Legacy's?" the principal looks skeptical at this.

"We have to go back, sir. One of my father's friends is going to pay for our tickets back, but he doesn't want to get any more involved because of a strain of thefts involving my family for several years." Maethus says sadly.

"Well, I'm sorry. When do they want you back by?" the principal's voice is touched with sadness.

"I just got the letter today, and they want us to leave tomorrow."

"That's kind of a rush job." the principal starts.

"It's too bad, because some of the thefts were close calls with murderers. I'd hate for something to happen to anyone in this school because of me and Legacy." Maethus continues his sob story.

"Alright. I'll have my secretary rush for the papers to be filled out." the principal says.

"Thank you so much, sir. You don't know how much safer you've made this school." Maethus catches the principal's raised eyebrow, but quickly exits the room before another question is asked.

Late the same night, a tall person wrapped entirely in black enters the campus gates, searching for something. He makes not a sound, his feet don't crunch the fallen leaves. He crosses the courtyard and opens the door leading into the gymnasium, letting it slam but making no noise. His footsteps echo loudly throughout the halls, awakening the light sleepers and causing them to either feel a demonic or angelic presense, whichever is opposite their personality. His steps faulter as he passes one of the dorm rooms. Light shines beneath the door, not the kind of light from a lamp or overhead light, but one such as a computer or television emits. He returns to the door and lays his left palm against it, calling upon the powers they had given him. "Those two should be ready for the jump tomorrow. I just hope that Maethus's plan works out how he wants it." the voice says. "It will be strange for you to have company, won't it Aelita?" the man removes his hand and proceeds down the hall, back the way he came, making the light sleepers fall back asleep with his second passing, but causing them to suffer nightmares about the being that had awakened them from their slumber. He knew the two they searched for were here, he'd completely removed the last bit of doubt upon hearing the muffled voice's conversation with himself. She would be wherever he was, the man knew, she never was away from his side if she could help it. Demons and Angels know what rest in the hearts of man, and Daemon was no differant than those legendary creatures.

Maethus and Legacy met early the next morning, neither had been able to sleep well the past night. "I just can't believe we are getting away from them!" Legacy says.

"Just remember, if they show any possibility of harming the school, we come back." Maethus rests his hands on her shoulders.

"I know. You've told me this every time we've talked about going." Legacy leans back into her friend's arms. She knew he'd always be there for her. "It's just, there's going to be so much free time. XANA doesn't attack every day." Maethus thinks and his face brightens.

"How about a little music?" he asks. Legacy turns to look him in the face. "As in a band." he states.

"Oh!" Legacy feels stupid, having not realized his intentions. "Wonder how long it would take Jeremy?" Maethus shrugs.

"Don't know. Let's ask him." he reaches for his cell phone. "Hey, Jeremy. Do you think you could do us a favor? Just a little something for our time in Lyoko. Really? Thanks." Maethus hangs up. "He says he can, but wants to know what. We're to meet him at the Factory." Legacy nods and within minutes they are inside the Factory's elevator, waiting for Jeremy to arrive on foot.

Jeremy arrives at the Factory minutes later, wondering what Maethus wanted him to put into Lyoko. Sliding down one of the ropes, he enters the elevator along with Maethus and Legacy. "So, what did you want me to create on Lyoko?" he asks the two. Maethus whispers into Jeremy's ear, drawing a curious glance from the boy. "It'll take some time, but I think I can do it." Maethus smiles and Jeremy steps off into the control room. Within minutes the two stand in the scanner room, ready to leave.

"Well, this'll be our last moments on Earth. Anything you want to say before we depart?" Maethus jokingly says in a somber voice as they step into the scanners.

"I love you." Legacy answers, just before the doors close and the two are virtualized.

Maethus and Legacy virtualize in Lyoko's Forest Region. Maethus stands in a dark grey ninja-type outfit. He has a wooden staff strapped to his back. The symbols on his hands glow a light grey. Legacy stands at his back, wearing a deep blue ninja-type outfit. Across her back is strapped two swords. The symbols on her hands and forehead also glow a light grey. "Did you say something, Legacy?" Maethus turns his head to look at her. "Copycat."

"No I'm not! You copied me!" Legacy tries to avoid his question, even though she knew she'd lose the argument.

"Strange." Daemon says. He'd lost the feeling of Maethus and Legacy. He looks down onto the schoolgrounds from the roof and prepares to jump down.

"You LOST THEM!" the scientist yells at Daemon.

"Don't blame me, they just disappeared." Daemon replies.

"It is your fault. You were supposed to find them and return them here!" the scientist shoves Daemon, knocking him to the ground, causing the symbol Akuma to glow with a bottomless black light. Daemon's eyes glow with the same darkness, and the scientist gasps, feeling the life being sucked from him.

"Don't you ever touch me again!" Daemon orders, standing and leaving the scientist to die of suffocation.

Weeks pass, Daemon swearing that he's lived a few of the days twice. He has left the facility of the scientists and lived in the mountains between France and Germany. Finally, he senses the old feeling of the Elements and Shadows being controlled. He smiles, his teeth stained with blood from the raw meat he'd been forced to eat, lest the scientists find him again. Daemon knew that to find Element and Shadows he should not be in control, his human limitations would slow him down. Instead, he knelt in his cave and pledged himself to any of his three guardian beings that would be listening. Unfortunately, it was the Demon that answered.

Maethus leaps out of the scanner, glad that it was the weekend, and that Jeremy had thought about having the two devirtualized. He seemed overly excited to return, since it had only been six weeks. Legacy, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen in the scanner room. As soon as she had exited the scanner, she travelled in the shadows to the surface, eager to see the real sky.

As Maethus and the others step off the elevator, Legacy steps up to the ledge where the ropes had been and throws a light-ball at Maethus's feet. "What the?" he steps back and looks up. This time Legacy drops a darkness-ball over Maethus's hands. "Oh, you want to play it that way, huh?" Maethus motions for the other four to go ahead. He concentrates and several plots of earth float into the factory from behind Legacy, creating an air-supported stairway from Maethus to Legacy. "Nothing is as good as how the crow flys." Maethus says, running up the plots and throwing his arms around the girl. He just could not help himself. For some reason, he felt as if everything was alright. Lightning crackles outside, and the sky grows dim.

Daemon descends from the darkened sky, born upon wings of deepest night. His eyes shone ruby-red and flecks of ruby-red light flickered at the corners. Daemon's hands were gloved, a black and white one on his right hand, while a grey and red one was on his left. He called upon a lightning bolt and gripped it with his left hand, waiting for his chance.

Maethus lets the ground plots drop to the factory's floor, not caring about the rain that was outside, just glad that he was back on earth. "I didn't realize how much I missed it." he looks out the front of the factory, watching the rain fall. He saw the lightning fall from the clouds, but it did not fall for long. It just stood there in the sky. "Uhhh, that doesn't happen too much, does it?" Maethus points at the lightning bolt, unable to see the person holding it. Jeremy walks to his side, completely amazed.

"I have never seen lightning do that. What do you think is causing it?" he asks. Legacy squints at the bolt and points her left hand at it, the light flaring brightly and revealing Daemon, black wings and all.

"You don't think..." Yumi looks at the others, one by one.

"Not XANA. Demon." Maethus shakes his head. "Project Demon." Legacy grabs Maethus's arm, terrified of what could happen. "Leave this to me. Take the others back to Kadic." he orders the girl. Silently, the five link hands and disappear, leaving Maethus alone to face Daemon.

The Demon watched as the humans gathered at the entrance. He felt the warmth of the lightning bolt grow as Shadows illuminated his weapon, and could see the heat trail left in the shadows by her passing. He could sense the air being manipulated by Element. "So, we meet at last, Element." he says, knowing the wind would carry the message to the boy. "You and Shadows have given me some problems. I knew you were here. Knew weeks ago. No reason to come, until now. You two threaten my very existance. With you two gone, THEY have nothing to use against me." The Demon descends to the bridge of the factory, watching as Element stood his ground, the fear on his face. "You know who I am. You know part of what I am. I am the Angels. I am the Gods. I am the Demons. You are the Earth. You are the Fire, Wind, and Water. You really think you can stand against my powers?"

"We shall see, Daemon." Maethus says.

"Daemon? He is gone. Only Demon remains. And so it should be." the Demon throws the lightning bolt at Maethus, striking him full in the chest but doing no damage.

"You are trying to use my own power against me. Useless." he states.

"Maybe, but what about something you cannot control? Something like the power of the Gods of the Old Worlds." the Demon removes the glove from his left hand, revealing the Kami symbol. "They bestowed me with the three greatest gifts, and the three greatest curses. You will fall before the Ultamite God. The One True God. The Living God of Demons." the Demon points his hand, palm out, at Maethus. "Now die!" he commands. A dark beam shoots from his hand and strikes the air in front of Maethus, knocking back a grey human-shaped figure, Legacy. She collapses into Maethus's arms, weakly pointing her right hand at the Demon.

"Legacy..." Maethus kneels to lay her on the ground. Her arm falls, and Maethus could feel her body growing cold by the second. He stands slowly, glaring at the Demon.

"You foolish humans. You sacrifice yourselves for nothing." the Demon laughs and points his right hand at Maethus, and a bolt of darkness shoots out, striking Maethus in the chest. He does not flinch. "What? How is this possible?" the Demon watches Maethus walk slowly towards him, summoning a sword of earth, fire, water, and lightning to his hand.

The lights flicker on and off at Kadic Junior High. Noone thought the flicker was the result of the death of elements. None thought twice about it, save for four students. But even they grew to forget, focusing more on freeing their friend from a virus from another world, and the battle between Demon and Element was forgotten entirely.


	7. Hebun Tenma

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else. The only thing within that I claim as my own is the created characters Maethus(aka Project Element), Legacy(aka Project Shadows), Daemon(aka Project Demon), and Risen.

**Phrases Used:** A list of the Japanese phrases used in this chapter. Most are altered in my translations, or chosen from theirs, but it it possible to find the real translations here: http/linear. Please note that you must use each word on it's own to find the real meaning. I'm saying this so someone that knows or is Japanese doesn't complain about me getting it wrong.

Hebun Tenma- Heaven's Evil Spirit

Eremento- Elements

Kaikou- Mysterious Light

Tenkei- Heaven-sent warning

Ikijigoku- Hell on earth

Hebun Tenma

Silence fell across the schoolyard as the black figure approached. It was a normal sunny day for Kadic, until this black-cloaked stranger entered the schoolgates. Jeremy was waiting for the others to finish eating when the person came into his view. "Souda wasurerareru jigoku." the person tells Jeremy, and he just looks at the person.

"What?" the figure moves on, encountering Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi outside the cafeteria.

"Naraku taiki kissuru kisama." it tells them.

"Kutabare!" Yumi tells it, and it laughs.

"Usesaru acchi gaisen." it cackles and holds its right hand towards Yumi. "Eremento." It shows her it's left hand. "Kaikou." It then points to it's forehead, pulling back it's hood and revealing it's black eyes and tan skin. "Tenkei Ikijigoku." It pulls the hood over it's face and says one word: "Risen." before disappearing in a cloud of red, blue, green, brown, black, white, and grey. Yumi shudders, growing pale. Jeremy rushes over once the thing was gone.

"Are you alright, Yumi?" Ulrich asks, and she nods.

"What did you two say?" Odd looks at her.

"He said 'Hell awaits it's opportunity to take you'. I told him to go to hell, and he said he went there and has returned victorious." Yumi says, shaking her head.

"What does 'Souda wasurerareru jigoku' mean?" Jeremy's gaze is drawn to where he had been sitting.

"'It is said that to be forgotten is hell.'"

"Does it mean anything?" Odd asks, and Yumi shrugs.

"It could. It could mean nothing."

He laughed. They remembered nothing, but he meant to remind them. True, he had been gone nearly a year, and was nolonger himself, but that meant nothing to him. "Maethus. Legacy. Daemon." he says the names softly. He was all of them. He was none of them. He felt their powers within him, but felt empty as well. "Remember. Remember or die."

Night had fallen, and Jeremy was working at his devirtualization program. "Jeremy, it's getting late." Aelita says, popping up on his monitor.

"Yes, but I think I've gotten it." He says, then the power cuts off, but leaving Aelita's screen up. "What the heck?" Another screen appears on the computer, holding the character card of two long forgotten.

"Remember, Jeremy. Remember." a voice says from behind him. "Lives depend on rememberance." Jeremy quickly turns around to see the person from before.

"Who are you? What do you want here?" he asks.

"Risen. Maethus. Legacy. Daemon. To be remembered." the person answers.

"Maethus...?" Aelita asks, remembering the name from somewhere.

"Yes. Remember. Or people will forefit their lives. Due to your inability to remember." the person nods.

"Maethus? But..." Jeremy looks to the two player cards on his screen. One was a guy, the other a girl. "Legacy? How?" The person shrugs.

"They are long gone. As Daemon. Only Risen remains. Souda wasurerareru jigoku. It will be hell. For you and your friends if you do not remember." he says.

"But, why?" Jeremy asks. Risen disappears, the electricity coming back on.

Risen now stood before the Factory, waiting. He knew that XANA would try to find him and access his powers soon, like he took advantage of them on the first day he had shown them to Jeremy and the others. He knew the spot he was standing on, for it was the spot that Legacy had died on. "They will come, and we will fight. They must remember, by the end of the repeated day. Otherwise they will die." Risen did not fully enjoy his choice. He had known them for a while before Demon came, and the three parts of him died.

A few hours pass, and he smiles, hearing the sound of their feet crushing the grass. The four stop, seeing him.

"Jeremy, take Yumi and Odd. I will speak with Ulrick." Risen orders, the two boys moving quickly, but Yumi stays behind. "I won't kill him, child. Not the first day, at least." Jeremy turns back and pulls Yumi with him. Soon the three are gone.

"Who are you?" Ulrick asks.

"I am the one that you have forgotten." Risen says, lundging forward and driving his elbow into Ulrick's stomach, dropping him to a knee.

"Why are you attacking me?" he tries to stop Risen's next attack, not knowing it would be elemental. Risen's fist was backed by the wind, the force of the blow sending Ulrick to his back.

"Element. Shadow. Demon. Do you remember?" Risen kneels, holding Ulrick's eyes open. Satisfied, he closes them.

Yumi stumbled from the scanner, right into Risen's arms. "Tough battle online?" he asks, causing her to stumble back against the doors. Defiantly, she shakes her head. "Good." Risen holds her by her throat and lifts her up, staring into her eyes. Satisfied, he drops her to her feet, watching her nearly collapse. Risen waited, watching Odd stumble from the other scanner. "And how is the girl?" he asks, holding Odd by the throat as he did to Yumi. Odd struggled, even kicked Risen's chest, drawing a grunt from him. "And you?" he stares deep into Odd's eyes, dropping him to the ground once satisfied. "Only one." he breathes deeply, and rises into the air, gliding through the floors of the Factory until he emerges from beside Jeremy's chair, causing the boy to nearly fall out of it. Before he can do anything, Risen's hand phases as he reaches into Jeremy's skull, streams of energy pass through the transparent limb and into Jeremy's skull. A minute passes, and the white field takes them back to earlier in the day, back to before XANA's attack.

A white figure crosses into the schoolyard, drawing the attention of the students. The person was dressed in pure white, as if it had never been dirty. The person walks straight to Jeremy, who watches him, smiling. "Maethus." The person shakes his head.

"Risen. You remember. Never forget. Never, even the dark times. Those who voluntarily forget fall into the trap of time." Risen says, smiling. "Go, your friends await. Tell them I am satisfied, for they all remember me." Risen bows and turns on his heel, walking straight back the way he had come.


End file.
